Folks, it's not PetSmart, it's the trainer! Find someone who has been professionally trained and certified as a positive reinforcement trainer (like the one I recommended to Courtney) and not one who has only been through a "store" training class. You will want one who has experience with reactive dogs and knows how to handle those situations. You also want one who uses positive reinforcement, not prong collars or bark devices or other torture methods.

Good luck!

I agree. Petsmart trainers only have a two week training session. Petsmart tried to recruit one of my neighbors to become a trainer and she is a disaster with dogs! She ended up getting rid of the puppy she took to classes there.

Vanilla barks in public all the time. If we are outside and someone walks by especially with another dog she growls, pulls the leash and barks and then when we get closer she stops and is so friendly and nice to people and their dogs. I don't get it. I get very embarrassed taking her out because I know she will bark at everything. In the house she is quiet and only barks if there are loud noises coming from outside. I did the Pet smart training too and it did nothing for us. She's a really good girl but just gets very excited and I think she has some anxiety that is why she barks outdoors.

I can't help because Lucy has similar problems. I do know she gets a little better after she has had a lot of off-leash playtime with other dogs HER OWN SIZE, so that might help.
What I really wanted to say is that if your neighbors don't start leashing their Rottweiler, I would call animal control and/or the police. They HAVE to leash their dog, any dog, but especially a breed like a Rottie. Geesh. Seriously, I would get very assertive with the neighbors. Lucy has issues with other dogs, and sometimes people leave their dog off-leash and when one runs up to us and the owner says something like "don't worry he's friendly" I ALWAYS tell them that my dog is not that friendly and they need to put theirs on a leash. I don't care if they think I'm a old biddy. Leash laws are there for a REASON.

I went through whole leash law thing. Called county and all. Unless dog leaves the yard they can roam free. I told them they left yard so they sent a letter. Now that one leashes them. BUT Others don't -- but they stay in yard SO far. Problem is, that any unleashed dog can't resist the yapping small dogs walking down road. It's a issue bec many big dog owners know there dog won't be injured so who cares till something happens.

Did this behavior develop over time? Have you had your vet check her sight? Not trying to worry you, but the fact that she calms down when objects come closer suggests to me that she may be having issues making out objects in a distance and is getting excited by them, once she visualizes them she is ok. Only a guess.

Folks, it's not PetSmart, it's the trainer! Find someone who has been professionally trained and certified as a positive reinforcement trainer (like the one I recommended to Courtney) and not one who has only been through a "store" training class. You will want one who has experience with reactive dogs and knows how to handle those situations. You also want one who uses positive reinforcement, not prong collars or bark devices or other torture methods.

Good luck!

I still need to give her a call...! And I was just teasing, I shop at Petco quite a bit, even had Ozzie groomed there once!

I was having the same problem with Bella. We were out to a pet friendly brunch one day and these ladies came up with two beautiful, well mannered Yorkies, they never made a peep even though Bella was egging them on. I sat on the ground with Bella and the Yorkies and was talking with the owners. I asked "How did you train them to not bark like my Bella does" the answer "A Citronella Bark Collar" When they were very young they were trained with this collar, now they were I think 5 or 6 and perfect Angels. After much discussion and research I broke down and bought one. We continued to take her places where she was known to bark, kept the front door open because she would bark at everything outside. When she would start barking we would put the collar on her (never until she started barking) A couple of sprays later and now all we have to do is bring it out where she can see it (just lay it on the table) and she stops. It's so hard to determine when it's ok for her to bark and when it's not but we work on it all the time and the collar did help. Our babies just want to be heard Best of luck!!!

I am guilty about petsmart because I had done research about their training on forums online, and several people were opposed to them, but there was one girl that since I got Cici she was already very kind and she seemed to me like she knew a lot. She never tried to sell me the expensive products she just recommended what was convenient. Petsmart was my last choice though. I has first taken her to a place that was supposed to be the best in the area, but the trainer never really helped with Cici's barking, she always just ignored us or had her assistants take her outside, so she would miss part of the class.

I did a lot of research and looking around. The only other trainer in my area is know for using shock collars, so I didn't even consider that place. The only places left were petco and petsmart. But at petco when I went to speak with the trainer, her method was pulling Cici really hard by the leash, that's why I opted for petsmart having no other option.

I have to do this myself now because at the moment there really are no other trainers besides the ones I mentioned! And everyone I ask recommends the one I took her to first, but I can't stand going back there knowing all the things that happened (there were favorites in the class, and others were ignored).

Does anyone think using the water bottle outside of the home would work? Or is that too mean? Is it better than a cintorella collar? I really don't know what's good or bad anymore almost. I thought desensitizing positively was the way to go, but it's not working.

Did this behavior develop over time? Have you had your vet check her sight? Not trying to worry you, but the fact that she calms down when objects come closer suggests to me that she may be having issues making out objects in a distance and is getting excited by them, once she visualizes them she is ok. Only a guess.

Well when she was younger she never barked at dogs or people she was always very wiggly and wanted to be petted and wanted to play with dogs. The problem started as she got a little older (after the incidents with the big dogs so I'm not sure the connection, but it was days after). She was about 20 weeks when it started I believe.

I had also considered it could be a sight problem, but I don't think so, because she wouldn't be able to see other things that are far right? Like when we're in the car, the windows are up and she can't hear what's outside, but she can still notice the people that are several feet away, and she stares and barks at them and they're not even close. And when I play fetch with her she can find the ball or toy much quicker than my sis's Yorkie, don't know if she's using her nose but I feel like she has good eye sight.

She doesn't stop barking if she gets close to them and they ignore her, she only stops barking if she gets close and they pet her or say something with a nice voice.

We've had some people tell her "shut up" in a rude tone, and that makes it worse she goes crazy even if she's close enough to smell them. A lot of people have been rude on the streets. And some men even "tease" her by yelling back at her, doing barking noises, or just wierd noises that I can't even describe, and it literally fuels her, it just makes it worse.

I've noticed that she NEVER barks at senior women. I don't know if it's because they're never loud and scare her, or they're just nicer and have a friendlier vibe, but she never barks at them even if I'm not giving her treats.

And we can't even go near kids anymore.. She really doesn't like kids and I don't know why, they used to be her favorite, but now she gets scared of them and she ends up scaring them with her barking.